For NJT, improved parts inventory planning and availability

Written by
William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief

New Jersey Transit has purchased SmartForecasts® from Smart Software, Inc., a provider of demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions, for its rail and bus operations. NJT’s purchase is part of a company-wide service improvement and inventory reduction program., and follows recent sales to Metro-North Railroad and Societe de Transport de Montreal (Montreal Transit).

NJT will use SmartForecasts to forecast parts consumption and inventory stocking requirements for its 40,000 active service/spare parts, valued at more than $100 million. “Much of NJT’s inventory experiences erratic, intermittent demand, which is especially difficult to forecast and can lead to significant over- and under-stocking of critical parts,” Smart Software said. “Early results with SmartForecasts indicate the potential for substantial savings and service level improvements, once full-scale implementation is complete.”

Smart Software will implement the NJT project in two stages. The first stage will focus on using SmartForecasts to identify immediate short-term benefits for key groups of parts, as well as measure the likely long term benefits for NJT. In the second stage, SmartForecasts will be integrated into the day-to-day planning environment at NJT.

SmartForecasts offers patented statistical solutions to forecast intermittent demand, “a particularly challenging aspect of service parts management, as well as a complete suite of automated forecasting and planning methodologies,” Smart Software CEO Nelson Hartunian said. “By automatically identifying the right method for each part, SmartForecasts can significantly reduce the amount of inventory required to meet a defined level of service. We have had several very strong successes helping transit systems improve their parts inventory planning and provide better service to their customers with better parts availability. Organizations like New Jersey Transit are looking for ways to help them reduce their costs without negatively impacting customer service. With ridership trending up, this is ever more important. We look forward to helping NJT achieve its goals.”